RE: Crypto Crash and The Search For Meaning While We All Go Broke

I am super new to crypto, like only a few months into it (and there's a STEEP learning curve,) so I never new the HALCYON DAYS of Lambos and early retirement. Just this morning, I watched a couple of videos created by former Steemit enthusiasts who were talking about how this platform has betrayed it's user base, and how the platform isn't sustainable because it doesn't have an advertising revenue stream and is, therefore, a big scam that helps the rich get richer while keeping the new folks poor and powerless... However, speaking as a new adopter of the platform, (I'm three weeks old today,) I have to say that I love this place. I've already connected with several folks through Steemit who I never would have met any other way.

I've read articles written by a street artist who sells prints for food money and seeks out hostels to shower in; I found a guy who posts adverts and images from old comics and pop culture memorabilia and we've swapped a few comments; I've connected with one or two artists who are also active on DADA.nyc, and I can see some of the artwork they create outside of that platform (which has very limited creation tools!) To me, these experiences have REAL VALUE. Maybe these aren't big MONEY MAKING opportunities, but so what? The folks who are angry because they can't make hundreds of dollars per post anymore, who only see value in dollar signs, have an extremely limited understand of what can be valuable (if you ask me.)

I've been writing and drawing for forty years, and I've been sharing my work on social networks for at least the last ten years WITHOUT making money for my creations. (I draw and write because I love to draw and write,) and now, with this new (TO ME) platform, I can share my work, get some interesting feedback, and maybe make a few cents for my work (or in one case almost TWENTY BUCKS! To me, that's big money!) I can also give someone whose writing or art or photography I enjoy some love (and a fraction of a penny... I'm still really new...)

As far as making money goes, I have ALREADY made more from writing on this platform that I have in six years of posting on WordPress---and that's in just three weeks! Sure, I haven't made that much in ECONOMIC value, but that's not the only thing that I'm creating for. I've also had people make interesting comments on my work (genuine engagement, or at least the appearance of engagement---maybe they were just fishing for my .001 up-vote cash---but I try to be optimistic;) I had one post get over 400 up-votes (in the 120 book reviews posted to my other social media networks, I've never had more than a dozen or a dozen and a half "likes" on a single review before,) and I've had a crash course in this weird cryptocurrency / blockchain world that's been happening right under my nose for almost a decade without ever coming to my attention before. (I love to learn new things, so this was a cool discovery for me.)

My point is that for me, having not lived through the "good-old-days" of cryptocurrency being a path to instant fortune, I'm excited by this new, more dismal environment, which requires hard work, engagement, and genuine interest to make any headway. I'm drawn to Steemit for its potential to be a new venue to share my art and writing, to find new creative types with whom I can swap stories and art and pop-culture references, and I'm excited by the possibility of making even a few pennies at a time for the work that I've been creating and posting online since about 2004 with ZERO compensation. It may not seem like much of a return on a creator's effort anymore, compared to the "beautiful dream" that the platform started as, but it's still giving a new user (like me) a fun, challenging, novel experience, and I'm going to give it a whirl for a while!

P.S. - I read a few of your articles about Partiko, and although I'm not using it RIGHT NOW, I have started using it on my phone to browse through people posts and like and comment, particularly when I'm away from the computer. (I'm not very good at phones, so I still prefer to write with a keyboard---TECHNICALLY, I still like to write with ink in a no-lined notebook...but I digress.) Partiko is a solid app, and I'm pleased to learn that the creators are decent folks!